Growing tea??
Has anyone considered trying to grow tea? I’m sure it would be a long painstaking grow but I wonder if it could be grown at a backyard garden level. I understand that it take about a year for the plant to grow to the appropriate size, then another 3 years for the first harvest, obviously then the work begins. Just wondering if it’s feasible??
I’ve looked into it a little, but I live too far north – Camellia sinensis likes the warm weather. I have heard of people growing it as a bonsai.. but I doubt that yields much of a tea harvest!
This might be helpful to you
http://steepster.com/discuss/6728-has-anyone-tried-to-grow-tea
http://steepster.com/discuss/6108-american-grown-teas
Tea is a camellia, so pretty much anywhere you can grow one of those, you should be able to grow tea.
I apologize for not searching the discussion board first to avoid re-posting this. Thanks for the links though. Good info to know
Yeah, we’re having a go at it. We live on the west coast, right near the US/Canada border. One of the few US plantations is just south of us.
We’ll best of luck, I’m sure you don’t plan to go full on production, but at least just to say you can:) let us all know how it turns out:)
Yeah, for us, it’s really just an experiment. Like you said – just to say we did it. I’ve been encouraged by successes in England and, as I mentioned, just a few minutes south of here near Burlington, WA.
I just want to make a cup of tea, knowing I grew it from a seed – even if it is the worst cup ever.
Cheers.
;) Hope you don’t go the Tregothnan route. From what I have heard; they mix their tea with various blends from Kenya and Assam diluting it down quiet far (and then jack up the price by just labeling it as their own). ((some Hawaiian tea companies have been doing this)
Yeah. The problem with US-grown teas is the matter of scale. Around here, a plantation could never produce the volume that can be managed is warmer climates. And, we’ll never be able to compete on price – with the cost of labour being the biggest factor.
But, some of these low-volume producers can compete on quality. It is possible to produce low yields of very high-quality tea, but at a price that makes it difficult to be competitive purely on a quality-to-price basis.
So, some people are tempted to cut in less expensive materials. This is nothing new. It’s been going on for the history of tea commerce, and is actually how some very popular teas have become popular.
My only beef is when companies are not forthright about what, exactly, they’re selling. It actually harms the entire industry.
Hmm … I feel a rant coming on. Maybe I’ll start a thread.
Cheers.
I know that scale is a big issue, which I guess ties back into Sakuma brothers tea.
I’ve got plenty of rants about Dragonwell/longjing teas never being authentic.
if you make a batch of tea, let me know so I can sample it. :)
Wow… I live in WA – down near Vancouver/Portland and I always assumed it would be too cold and not enough sun to grow a tea plant. I would LOVE to have my own tea plants – just for the fun of it. So Brent, where/how did you get your tea plants?? Please share more!
Melanie, SFTGFOP posted a couple of links to other threads on this subject. Check out the first one and look for my post. Raintree Nursery up in Morton (Lewis County) has tea plants. They used to have a couple of varieties but when last checked they only had one. If you haven’t used Raintree before, they have a great selection of fruit trees developed by the Extension station up in Everett just for Western WA.
Login or sign up to leave a comment.